TIME from schore ar ch 4

“…the orbitofrontal system critically contributes to “the integration of past, present, and future experiences, enabling adequate performance in behavioral tasks, social situation, or situations involving survival (Lipton, Alvarez, & Eichenbaum, 1999, p. 356).  But perhaps the most complex of all functions of the right prefrontal cortex is what the neuroscientists Wheeler, Stuss, and Tulving (1997) called “the ability to mentally travel (schore/ar/121) through time” – the capacity to mentally represent and become aware of subjective experiences in the past, present, and future.  This unique capacity to self reflect comes on line at 18 months (the time of orbitofrontal maturation):

The [right] prefrontal cortex, in conjunction with its reciprocal connections with other cortical and subcortical structures, empowers healthy human adults with the capacity to consider the self’s extended existence throughout time. The most complete expression of this capacity, autonoetic awareness, occurs whenever one consciously recollects or re-experiences  a happening from a specific time in the past, attends directly to one’s present or on-line experience, or contemplates one’s existence and conduct at a time in the future.  (Wheeler et al, 1997, pl. 350; italics added).

(schore/ar/122)

This is certainly something I had no experience with as a child, until 18 at least!